Strand uncoiling apparatus



April 15, 1958 w. BERTHOLD 2,830,432

sTmuo-uucoruuc APPARATUS Filed June 26, 1956 I uvvewma W BCRTHOLD BY a ATTORNEY is secured to one of the half-flyers.

United States Patent STRAND UNCOILING APPARATUS Application June 26, 1956, Serial No. 593,855 7 4 Claims. (CI. 57-60) This invention relates to strand uncoiling apparatus and more particularly to apparatus for removing strands from stationary coiled supplies.

The speed with which operations can be performed on strands. such as insulating, covering, twisting and stranding operations depends largely upon the ease of winding or unwinding the strands rather than the intermediate steps of processing them. The reason for this is the inertia of the rotating supplies usually coiled on reels which comes into play during starting and stopping and also during running when the distributions of the strands on the reels are not perfect. This adverse effect is found to be cumulative because higher speeds make larger reels for larger supplies and larger takeups desirable while at the same time at high speeds the inertia is more disturbing than at low speeds.

The object of the present invention is an apparatus for removing strands from stationary coiled supplies at constant twist length.

In 'one embodiment of the invention, stationary coiled strand supplies are disposed in stacked formation and the strands from these supplies payoff through half-flyers after which they are caused to travel together through a meanscapable of maintaining the twistlength of the strands constant.

' More specifically the stands are advanced at a constant speed by a driven capstan operatively connected to the top gear of a differential unit, the bottom gear of which A full-flyer supported by the arm of the difierential to receive the strands from their respective h-aIf-flyers is under the control of the difierential arm whereby the speed of rotation of the full-flyer and its driven linkage with the capstan will cause the twist length of the strands to be constant.

Other objects and advantages will be apparent from the following detailed description when considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawing, wherein the single figure is a front elevational view of the apparatus, portions thereof being shown in section.

In the present embodiment of the invention, stationary coiled strand supplies in the form of filled reels l0 and 11 are disposed in stacked formation upon a stationary support 12. The top reel 11 is provided with a floatinghalf flyer 14 which may be provided with its conventional pivotal or rotatable support 15 nesting in the adjacent end or hub of the reel 11. The floating half-flyer includes spaced arms 16 carrying rollers 17 at their outer ends to guide a strand 18 from the reel 11. A main half-flyer 20 of, suitable length to have its entrance end 21 disposed adjacent the reel 10 extends upwardly into a differential unit 22 where its upper end is joumalled in a bearing 23 and a bottom gear 24 of the differential unit is fixedly mounted thereon. An opening 25 is formed in'the flyer 20 to receive the strand 18 from the reel 11 so that it may join strand 28 from reel 10.

The differential unit 22 includes a top input gear 30 equal in size to the bottom output gear 24, these gears being operatively connected by an intermediate gear 31. All of the gears are rotatably disposed in anarm32 of the differential unit the top gear 30 being mounted upon a spindle 33 which is joumalled in bearings 34 mounted in a stationary frame 35. Actually the arm 32 is operatively connected to the gears 24 and 30 by the intermediate gear 31. A full auxiliary flyer 36 supported mainly by the arm 32 of the differential unit 22 has its entrance end disposed in alignment with the exit end of the main half-flyer 20, the exit end of the full-flyer 36 being'supp'orted by a bearing 38. If desired the stationary support 12- and the bearing 38 may be parts of planetary gearing as shown in co-pending application, Serial No. 593,977, filed June 26, 1956. The strands 18 and 28 on leaving the full-flyer 36 pass around a capstan 39 and continue on from the capstan to any desired processing means (not shown).

In this embodimentof the invention, a power means in the form of a motor 40 and a speed control unit 41 I .is connected to the capstan 39 and the top gear 30 of the differential 22. A main drive shaft 42 from the power means 40-41 is connected through gears 43 and 44 with the capstan 39. A shaft 45, connected to the drive shaft 42 through gears 46 and '47, when included with gears 48, 49 and 50 complete the driving connection of the top gear 30 of the differential with the power means and also with the capstan '39. The gear 48 is mounted upon the shaft 45, the gear 50 is mounted upon the spindle 33 and the intermediate gear 49 is mounted upon a spindle 51 which is joumalled in suitable bearings 52. r

Before considering the operation of the apparatus, it may be well to understand that during each unreeling counterclockwise rotation of a half-flyer one left hand twist will be formed in its strand. During each rotation of a full-flyer, two twists will be formed, left hand twists during clockwise rotation and right hand twists during counter-clockwise rotation (all views taken looking down on the apparatus). In'the present instance the twist .placed in the strand 18 by the floating flyer 16 is not important. The function of the floating flyer 16 is to direct the strand 18 into the flyer 20 just prior to the position where the strands 18 and 28 are twisted together. The twists referred to are not the twists in the individual strands but the twists in the pair of strands.

Before considering the operation of the apparatus it should be understood that stands advancing through rotating flyers are thereby twisted in several ways.

When two strands are unwound from stacked stationary supply reels, as shown in the present embodiment of the invention, by means of half-fiyers the strands are twisted about each other through the action of the main half-flyer and one pair twist is formed for each\ revolution of the main half-flyer. The pair of strands must be advanced by external means and the advancement of the strands will set the half-fiyers in rotation. The direction of the flyers is determined entirely by the direction in which the strands appear to be wound on their supply reels, and the apparent direction of the strands on their reels may be reversed by turning the reels upside down.

One counterclockwise revolution of the unwinding main half-flyer forms one left hand twist in the pair of strands; one clockwise revolution of the unwinding half-flyer forms one right hand twist in the pair of strands. The direction of rotation of the floating half-flyer and the size or fullness of the upper supply reel has no effect on the twist direction or twist length in which the strands are twisted about each other.

When a pair of strands is advanced through a full-flyer from its entrance end tothe exit end, two pair twists are formed therein for each revolution of the full-flyer. The

flyer must be set in motion by external means. The direction of rotation is determined by the external driving means. The pair of strands must also be advanced by external means. One counterclockwise revolution of the full-flyer forms two right hand pair twists in the pair of strands; one clockwise revolution of the full-flyer forms two left hand pair twists in the pair of strands. I

It can be seen from the' above statements that a pair of strands which advances through an unwinding main half-flyer and a full-flyer will be free of twists provided that the full-flyer makes half a revolution for each full revolution of the main half-flyer, and provided further that the direction of the half-revolution of the full-flyer. is the/same as that of the full revolution of the mainhalf-flyer.

This follows from the fact that full-flyers rotating in the same direction as half-flyers form twists in the twist direction or lay opposite to that formed by half-fiyers and that full-fiyers form one twist for half a revolution while half-flyers form one twist for'one full-revolution.

Furthermore it should be understood that the free floating arm of a differential will revolve at the average I of the speeds of the externally rotated input gear and the externally rotated output gear. Thisrelationship can also be expressed by the statement that the arm will make a half a revolution for each revolution of the input gear and a half a revolution for each revolution of the output gear. The direction ,of rotation of the half-revolution of the arm is the same as that of the controlling input or output gear respectively in that the arm follows the direction of rotation of the fastest gear and rotates in that direction, through the action of the intermediate gear, the difference between the input and output gears.

Considering now the operation of the apparatus, let it be assumed that strand 28 is threaded through main half-flyer 20, strand 18 is threaded through floating halffiyer 16 and through opening and joins strand 28 in the exit end of the main half-flyer 20 and that the pair of strands is threaded through the full-flyer 36 and several turns around capstan 39, and from there proceeds to further processing and winding operations. With the driving means 40-41 energized it is apparent that capstan 39 will advance the pair of strands at a speed controlled by motor 41 if an external pull on the pair of strands is maintained beyond the capstan. The advancement of the pair of strands will set flyers 20 and 16 in motion, their direction of rotation depending on the winding of the strands on their respective reels.

The full-flyer 36, fixedly attached to the free floating arm 32 of the differential 22, will make half a revolution for each revolution of the half-flyer 20, fixedly attached to the output gear 24 of the difierential 22, and half a revolution for each revolution of the input gear of differential 22. To illustrate these points it may be well to state that for each full revolution of the full" flyer 36, the gear 24, with half-flyer 20, and the gear 30 each must revolve one complete cycle. If the differential 22 is observed closely while mentally turning the gears 24 and 30 at like speeds in the same direction for. one cycle it willbe apparent that the gear 31 will not rotate and it will cause the arm 32 and the full-flyer 36 to turn one cycle with the half-flyer 20. If the'gear 30 should be held stationary, allowing the gear 31 to ride thereon, it would take two cycles of the gear 24 (and half-flyer20) to cause the gear 31 to turn the arm 32 with the full-flyer one cycle. However, the gear 30 is driven at a constant speed in one direction. speed of the half-flyer 20 were constant then the fullflyer would not be needed to introduce uniform twists of predetermined lengths. This is not true and the function of the full-flyer is to respond to the speed of rotation of the half-flyer 20 (gear 24) relative to the constant speed of the gear 30 to bring about the uniform twists of'predetermined lengths.

The half-revolution which the full-flyer 36 makes for 4 each revolution of the main half-flyer 20 will form a twist opposite to that formed in the pair of strands by one revolution of flyer 20. It follows therefore that the 7 pair of strands when leaving the exit end 38 of fullflyer 36 will have formed therein one twist for each revolution of the input gear 30 of the differential.

Examination of the gear train 305049-4847-- If the 46-43-44 will show that for each revolutionof gear 30 the capstan 39 will advance the pair of strands a fixed amount, dependingentirely and only on the gear ratio between capstan 39 and gear 30 and on the diameter of. the capstan. This means that the apparatus will remove two individual strands from two stationary supply reels and deliver the pair of strands, twisted together at uniform and deliberately chosen twist length, over a capstan regardless of the direction in which the individual strands are wound on their supply reels, and regardless of the relative size of the supply reels. The direction of twist may be reversed by reversing the direction of rotation of input gear 30 of the differential 22 in relation to the direction of rotation of the capstan 39. By choosing different sizes for the capstan or different ratios of the aforementioned gear train, or both, it is possible to select different twist lengths for the pair of the strands 18 and 28. For any chosen combination of gear ratio and capstan size, however, the twist length will be uniform over the entire length of the pair of the strands regardless of the fact that the speeds of all the fliers will change during the winding process.

It is to be understood that the above described arrangements are simply illustrative of the application of the principles of the invention. Numerous other arrangements may be readily devised by those skilled in the art which will embody the principles of the invention and fall within the spirit and scope thereof.

What is claimed is: v

1. An apparatus for uncoiling strands from stationary coiled strand supplies comprising a stationary support for the coiled strand supplies, means to advance the strands longitudinally simultaneously to remove the strands from their supplies, a rotatable unwinding flyer for the strands of the supplies introducing twists in the strands removed from the supplies, and means responsive to the unwinding flyer to remove from the strands the twists introduced by the unwinding flyer and to introduce uniform twists of predetermined length and direction in the strands.

2. An apparatus for uncoiling strands from stationary coiled strand supplies comprising a stationary support for the coiled strand supplies, means to advance the strands longitudinally simultaneously to remove the strands from their supplies, a rotatable main flyer for the strands of the supplies introducing twists in the strands removed from the supplies, and an auxiliary flyer responsive to the main flyer to remove from the strands the twists introduced by the main flyer and to introduce uniform twists of predetermined length and direction in the strands.

3. An apparatus for uncoiling strands from stationary coiled strand supplies comprising a stationary support for the coiled strand supplies, means to advance the strands longitudinally simultaneously to remove the strands from their supplies, a rotatably supported half-flyer for the strands of the supplies introducing twists in the strands removed from the supplies, and an auxiliary full-flyer actuable in cooperation with the half-flyer to remove from the strands the twists introduced by the half-flyer and to introduce uniform twists of predetermined length and direction in the strands.

4. An apparatus for uncoiling strands from stationary coiled strand supplies comprising a stationary support for the coiled strand supplies, power means, means driven by the power means to advance the strands longitudinally simultaneously at a constant speed to remove the strands from their. supplies, a rotatably supported half-flyer for the strands of the supplies introducing twists in the strands removed from the supplies, a difierential having twists of predetermined length and direction in the an input gear driven at a constant speed by the power strands. means, an output gear driven by the half-flyer, and an intermediate arm fixed to the axis of an intermediate gear R e e c Cited in the file of this patent and thereby caused to rotate in either direction from an 5 UNITED STATES PATENTS idle position by rotation of the output gear below and 7 above the speed of the input gear, and an auxiliary full- $2222? sg g flyer carried by the arm and rotatable therewith relative 67 4 Nelson 1946 to the idle position to remove from the strands the twists 2'464860 Green 1949 introduced by the half-flyer and to introduce uniform 10 

